


And Quietly We Unearth Our Friendship

by doggoneit



Series: The Odds Against Us [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Kid Fic, Kiddy crushes, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 05:58:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7347913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doggoneit/pseuds/doggoneit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Late one evening, Tetsurou finds a boy named Kei near the playground. It turns out Kei is lost, and Tetsurou keeps him company while he waits for his parents to come and find him. While they wait, they talk about their favourite dinosaurs and work together to dig for dinosaur bones.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Quietly We Unearth Our Friendship

The blond boy was a ways from the playground, methodically digging a small hole with a plastic spade. Tetsurou trekked over the grass and when he was an appropriate distance away, he cleared his throat.

“Hey.”

The boy was a few years younger than him, with round cheeks and heavy glasses resting over his nose. He paused and looked up, big amber eyes swimming in confusion.

“Hi?”

Tetsurou gestured to the shrubbery around them. It was almost waist-height, and his mother had warned him about playing too close to the bushes because of the poisonous snakes. “You shouldn’t be so far from the playground,” he said. “If a snake gets you, you’re dead.”

The boy looked around like it was the first time he was seeing his surroundings. He probably didn’t know where he was, just got distracted and wandered too far off the path. He ducked his head and mumbled something.

Tetsurou tilted his head. “Hmm?”

“It’s,” the boy’s voice wobbled, “it’s too cold for snakes.”

“Oh. Well.” Clearly, Tetsurou hadn’t thought that through. Either way, the boy shouldn’t be alone in the bushes without someone watching over him. Tetsurou looked around all the way to the playground, but couldn’t see anyone who shared the same blond hair. “Where are your parents anyway? They probably think you ran away.”

“Um.” The boy fiddled with the plastic spade, his small fingers picking and pulling at the handle. “I don’t know.”

Tetsurou exhaled through his nose. He should get an adult, but asking a stranger from the park probably wasn’t the best idea. “Look, my ma can help find your parents. If you know their number, she can call them. If not, she can call the cops to come get you.”

The boy shook his head doggedly. “I’m lost. I have to stay where I am.”

“Are your parents going to come?” Tetsurou wasn’t feeling too optimistic on that point. But it was possible the boy lived close by and couldn’t remember how to get home. If that was the case, someone would come looking for him soon.

“They will,” the boy insisted. “I just have to wait.”

Tetsurou looked up at the evening sky. The sun was a blaze of orange amidst the clouds and soon it would start sinking behind the roofs. He had to be home soon but it didn’t feel right to leave the boy by himself.

“All right.” Tetsurou sat on his haunches and looked at the hole the boy had been digging. “I’ll wait with you till your parents come, okay, so you’ve got nothing to worry about. What’s your name?”

“Kei.”

“Kei. That’s a really nice name. Mine’s Tetsurou. What’re you doing with this hole here?”

“Digging!” Kei’s answer burst forth like a dam, taking Tetsurou by surprise. “There are dinosaur bones here!”

“Yeah? Cool!” Tetsurou didn’t know the first thing about dinosaurs, but he’d seen Jurassic Park and his favourites were the Velociraptors. They’d been far scarier than the Tyrannosaurus rex. “You really think we’re gonna find some?”

Kei nodded enthusiastically, his glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose. “If we dig really deep, we could find _hundreds_ of them.”

Excitement and energy fizzled between them like lightning. Tetsurou couldn’t help but grin and dig along, using his hands to scoop more dirt from the hole and dumping it to the side. It was satisfying on a visceral level to feel dirt under his fingernails, like proof it was a job well done.

“My big brother likes dinosaurs too.” Kei chatted as he worked, about dinosaurs and his brother. He pushed his spade into the dirt and heaved it up. Most of it fell back into the hole and Tetsurou collected it for him. “He gave me two dinosaur figurines for my birthday.”

“Well, that’s two more dinosaur figurines than I have,” Tetsurou said. “Wish I had a big brother to buy me stuff.”

“We can share,” Kei offered, digging his spade into the hole again. “I’ll bring them next time and we can play together. I have a Stegosaurus and a Brachiosaurus. You can play with that one, it’s my favourite.”

Tetsurou’s jaw dropped in shock. “You’d let me play with your favourite?”

“Mm-hmm.” Kei gave a shy smile, and it made Tetsurou’s heart flop in his chest. “You’re really nice. Everyone else walked past me and it made me sad, so I was really happy when you talked to me.”

“Oh… uh… I…” Tetsurou gabbled. His cheeks and ears heated up; no doubt he was flushing red and he was thankful for the darkness that hid his embarrassment. He concentrated on scooping more dirt out of the hole and his fingernails scratched something hard.

“Tetsurou!”

He jerked upwards and spun around, then grinned when he saw his mother jogging towards them. “Ma!”

“Tetsurou, you awful child! Have you been here all this time?” She frowned at the state of his clothes and began patting the dirt from his shirt. “I told you to come back before dinner. Do you know how worried I was when you didn’t show up?”

“Oh.” Tetsurou’s stomach chose that exact moment to growl disturbingly loudly. “Sorry, Ma. I was staying with Kei because he was waiting for his parents, and then we lost track of time so…”

Kei was gone.

Tetsurou blinked, then craned his neck every which way to check until he ended up facing his mother again.

No Kei.

“He’s gone,” Tetsurou said in confusion. “He was just here.”

“Honey, he’s probably gone home. That’s where you should be now. I can’t believe how much dirt you have on you,” she muttered and continued dusting him down. “You’ll need a bath before you eat. What on earth were you doing?”

Tetsurou pointed to their handiwork. The hole was quite large now; if Kei curled up, he could probably fit in there. “We were digging for dinosaur bones.”

“You don’t even like dinosaurs,” his mother said in exasperation.

“I thought I didn’t but Kei was telling me all these cool things about them. Did you know dinosaurs were warm-blooded? And that they’re more related to birds than snakes? And that Velociraptors were actually really small and had feathers?”

“I didn’t.”

“Kei’s really smart,” Tetsurou said proudly. “He said he’d bring his figurines next time so we could play together. Maybe we could finish digging out the hole too, and see what’s under there. I was just about to pull something out when you came.”

His mother peered at the hole. It was difficult to make out details in the dark, and the closest streetlamp was quite far away but it provided enough light to see the off-white protrusion in the soil. She bent down and brushed the dirt back.

A strange look crossed her face and she backed herself away a few paces.

“Ma?” Tetsurou asked. “You okay?”

“Get away from there.”

“Ma, what are you—”

“I said get away!”

She grabbed his arm and jerked him away. Tetsurou tried to pull back but her grip twisted into his skin and he cried out in pain.

“Ma, stop it, please…”

She pushed his head into her chest and dragged him away from the hole, all the while screaming into his hair _don’t look_ , _don’t look_.

 

.

 

Tetsurou sat on the playground swings and the flashing red lights were still bright enough to hurt his eyes. He didn’t understand what was happening but he knew the red lights meant the cops were here, and if the cops were here then it could only be a bad thing.

The cops had set up tape around the hole. Two of them, wearing white plastic suits that covered their entire body, had shovels in their grasps and they were digging deeper into that hole. Tetsurou felt rather annoyed; that was supposed to be for him and Kei only.

One of the cops, a kindly man with glasses, approached him and his mother.

“Hello, Tetsurou.” The cop smiled and gave a small bow. “My name’s Takeda Ittetsu. I’m a policeman and I’d like to ask you some questions about the hole you dug.”

“It wasn’t all me,” Tetsurou said. “It was Kei too. He wanted to find dinosaur bones.”

“Kei?” Takeda said, jotting something down in his notepad.

“Small kid, blond hair and big glasses. Kinda like yours.”

“That’s quite unique in this part of town. So what was Kei doing here?”

“He was lost and while he waited for his parents to show up, he was digging for bones. I waited with him and helped him out.”

“That’s very nice of you,” Takeda said. “Did you see where Kei went? No-one else remembers seeing a little boy with you.”

“I dunno.” Tetsurou shrugged. “I was going to introduce him to my ma, but he wasn’t there when I turned around. Maybe you scared him off, Ma.”

She made a noise, something in between a squawk and a wail.

“Okay, I’ll have to talk to my colleagues about this. Thank you for being patient and answering my questions. You’re free to go for now, but we may need to call or visit later if we have follow-up questions.”

Takeda bowed once more and left them.

Tetsurou hopped off the swing. His mother bent to his height and grasped his shoulders so tightly her nails dug through his shirt and into his skin. He tried not to wince but a twitch of his nose got through. What was with her today?

“Tetsurou, are you sure that’s what happened? You can’t lie to a policeman, you know that.”

“Huh?” Tetsurou wriggled out of her grip. “I’m not lying, Ma, it’s the truth! Kei was here and we were digging, and then you came and he was gone.”

“Oh god.” His mother whispered. Her body began to shake and she drew her arms around herself. “It’s been in the news for months. A boy named Tsukishima Kei went missing. He’s exactly how you described him.”

“Well that’s good,” Tetsurou said. “He’s not missing anymore. He’s here somewhere.”

“Yes.” The word escaped his mother like a breath of heartache. “He’s here.”

“Do we really have to go?” Tetsurou asked. “I promised I’d stay with him till his parents came and got him. I don’t want to leave him in the dark all by himself.”

His mother slowly stood again, and she took him by the hand. Her palms were cold and clammy, but he held on anyway and followed her as she led them home.

“He’s not by himself now,” she said. “The policemen have found him. They’re calling his parents right now.”

Tetsurou tilted his head. He hadn’t noticed the cops doing any of that stuff, but his mother had always been more perceptive than him. “Really?”

“Really.” She hesitated, both in her words and in her body. “Listen, Tetsurou. There’s something I need to tell you. It’s about Kei. Why you saw him. And why he disappeared. It’s not something I ever thought I’d have to talk to you about.”

Tetsurou held his mother’s hand tighter. She was shaking. “You can tell me later, Ma, after we’ve eaten. You don’t look up to it right now.”

“I guess not.” She exhaled, a loud whoosh from her chest. “I… Tetsurou. What happened tonight. You were very brave. You helped that little boy and his family, and I’m sure they’re grateful for what you’ve done. I’m… I’m proud of you.”

Tetsurou didn’t get it, but he didn’t say anything and let his mother nervously ramble on. It wasn’t like he’d done anything special; he’d dug a hole and talked about dinosaurs and made a new friend in the process. Okay, maybe that was a little bit special.

The most important thing of all though, was that Kei had been found and he would soon be home with his family.

**Author's Note:**

> Kiddy crushes are adorable.


End file.
